Joys of Installing a Cluster (Speedo Cable)
 

I got my LX cluster from cablemirc a few days ago. Yesterday was a pretty nice day so I decided to try and install the new cluster after work. Let me tell you, what a pain in the ass.

First of all, the gauge bezel plastic molding around the dash is hard as hell to get off, I ended up cracking it above the driver-side vent (near the door).

Finally I got that POS off, so then I unscrewed the old gauge cluster which was in there pretty tight, and ended up breaking a peice of the plastic cover pulling it out. Oh well, didn't need it anyway.

So I put the new cluster in, and have a lot of problems trying to get the speedo cable to plug in to the back because of the limited slack they give you. I read a post from highbody a while back that said something about pulling on the cable for a little more slack.

Now, lemme tell you, I have a bit of a temper, and I was already pretty pissed from the gauge bezel molding being a beeehatch, so I wasn't going to mess around with the speedo cable. I was pulling on it, and it eventually gave, giving me a couple extra inches. I'm thinking great! So I hook all the shit up, turn my car on, and rev it up, WOOOOOO the tach works!

So I start driving along... Speedo isn't working. Shit... So I figure maybe it came out again, so I unscrewed everything and checked it, it was still plugged in. Hmmmm... now what? I tired the old cluster, and that didn't work either. So I popped the hood, checked around, and the cable pulled out of the tranny, so that's obviously why.... So finally I plugged that back in, and had to re-attach my new cluster (which ment pulling enough slack to plug it in), so it came out of the tranny again. So I put the cluster back in, and then plugged it back in the tranny, but it still doesn't work.

Soooooooooooo, I just said F it for the night, I was getting really pissed off, and I looked like a retard driving down the road every two minutes and then back to my house. So I'm going to try and look at it this weekend sometime.

Question: The cable inside spins, right, it's not an electrical pulse or anything? I think I'm going to pull out the cluster to make sure the cable thing is still spinning, that I didn't damage the cable. I swear, everytime I try and do something to my car, something has to go wrong... Damn cars!!!!

:o

I know what you mean. The cluster is really a bitch to take off. I remeber taking mine out to paint back in the day. As for the cable, I never had any problems with it. Space is really limited and that was the only thing that made it hard for me. As far as I remember the cable does spin inside.

Let us know when you fix it. Always having problems when doing shit to the car is a common with me as well. Good thing is that you enjoy it more afterwards, knowing how much frustrasion went into getting it to work:D

When putting your cluster back in the dash, reach under the steering wheel and up behind the consol. Then plug in the speedo cable. That will give you the room that you need. I had a problem two winters ago with a bad cable. Just have a little patience.

On my Escort, I had to squeeze on the connector on the back of the speedo just a bit. Once I did that, the cable easily pulled off.

If you are going to remove your speedo cable from the housing, be sure to apply some lightweight grease to it such as lithium grease before reinstalling it.

Thanks for the replys, guys :) I think what might be a problem is that the part that spins inside the cable kinda got pushed back in pretty far that it might not be actually going insde the speedo housing on the cluster. So I pulled the thing back out a little bit with some pliers, but it moves around pretty easily. I might mess around with it tonight or tomorrow sometime, I'll be sure to post my celebration or frustration accordingly :D

Cluster Removal/Installation
 

When I was removing the cluster in my 323, I found it easiest if you unscrew the 4 bolts underneath that hold the steering wheel/column up. With it resting on the drivers seat, the plastic trim around the cluster is very easy to remove (without breaking anything). I also found it easiest to plug the speedo cable in by reaching up underneath the dash, just like SLPRprotege said. Also, there should be sort of a clip that clicks in that will hold the speedo cable into the back of the cluster. Hope this helps.

Agreed. I was forced to do the same thing in my Escort. As soon as the column was down, disassembling the rest of the dash was easy.

wow, i had no trouble at all with mine when i painted the cluster face. Had it out in 20mins.

the speedo plugs into the cluster witha white clip, press the sides of the clip to release the cable. I found it very easy to reach up from under and grab the cable, and pinch the connector. I did not take the collum down.

I've posted about this before in more detail, maybe try a search or email me. I will be doing a cluster how-to VERY soon, maybe even tomorrow as i am sick and tired of waiting for the gas light to come on to know when i'm out (my guage only works till half tank, then just falls to empty and stays there) I will go through the steps i took to paint the cluster, replace bulbs, change the color of the little arrows for turn signals and the complete dash/cluster removal.

my wire's were actually rapped around one of the bars that here bracing the dash in the back... so i de tangled the mini-mess and when i said pull... i didn't mean rip ;) ... sust some slight preasure, and it helped....i had such a hard time with the odomiter plug, that was a bitch... i ended up with my back on the floor and 1 hand in the front of the cluster and the other one all the way up the under part of dash board

Well, here's today's update... I started off taking out the cluster and making sure that the cable was still spinning so I didn't damage it. it worked fine, so I was happy.

So I figured that the cable itself in the sheething was dropping back too far when I plugged it in, therefore not getting into the housing in the cluster to spin in there. I decided that I'm a genius, and took a clamp, and clamped the wire so the cable inside would budge when I pluged it into the cluster. Wohoo, it actually stayed out!

Everything going well so far... so I unclamped the wire, and pushed the cluster into the dash, got under the hood, and made sure the cable was going into the tranny alright. Still A-OK.

So then I start the car and take it for a drive.... No go. Actually I shortened my story, I did numerous things, but the thing that SHOULD have worked still doesn't. I have no idea what to do now, and I don't have the patience to go back and RE-troubleshoot everything.

The tach works great, to my knowledge the gas gauge is working, all the lights are tip top, but the odo and the speedometer don't work for shit. Perhaps I should take it apart and try it with my old cluster again, I dunno... Just thought I'd vent. STUPID FUCKING CARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i changed out my fuel guage today and took pics for a full cluster how-to... look for it in a couple of days.

Sounds like you may need a new speedo cable. It may be broken inside at someplace...

Maybe.... But is spun first thing this morning... maybe i'll play around again tomorrow, but I only have so much patience, hehe

funny. even with the tilt wheel all the way down there still isn't enough room on mine to get it out. I had to loosen the 4 bolts like other people did. Also took me a million years to figure out to go at the cables from the bottom. :)

I don't know if this is only because I have an automatic, but when I left the speedo cable out (by accident) the HOLD light would flash...

hmm, I wonder what happens if you unplug the speedo cable on a rental car... if you get charged by the mile...lol. (not recommended by me!!!)

Well, yesterday I was feeling ambitious, so I decided to tackle it again. This time, success!!!! (sorta)

The problem I was having was that the cable (inside the sheathing) was pulled out TOO far, thereby not getting spun by the tranny, even though the sheathing was properly attached. So once again, I clamped the wire so the cable on the inside wouldn't move, attached it to my cluster, and made sure of the connection into the tranny.

SUCCESS! I was so happy, jumping and froliking about :D I decided to take my car for a bath to reward it, but don't you know by the time I got it to the car wash, I must have hit a bump or something and the cable stopped working again. I was so mad I could have probably pick my car up and threw it to kansas.

Of course that's after I put all the dash peices back on (about 20 min of work), so I'm going to have to take everything apart again and hope it doesn't come disconnected AGAIN. I was so mad (and still am), I was thinking of selling my two cars, and getting something else, something to just drive around. Something nice like a Maxima. I'm still thinking about it :(

dude im sorry to hear this. But it made me laugh to read your last post. I wish u the best of luck ..Jon